Tension and take-up device for knitting-machines.



0. MORLEY. TENSION AND TAKE-UP DEVICE FOR KNITTING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 18. I916.

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JOSEPH D. MoELEY, or NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR To scorr & WILLiAMs, incon- PORATEID, 0F iaosron, MASSACHUSETTS, a CORPORATION or new JERSEY.

TENSION AND TAKE-UP DEVICE FOR KNITTING-MACHTNES.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH D. MORLEY, a. citizen of the United'States, residing in New York city, New York, have invented certain Improvements in Tension and Take- Up Devices for Knitting-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a yielding tension and take-up device for knitted Webs, anobject which I attain by subjecting the web to the action of boaters disposed transversely to the wales of the web and moving in the direction of delivery of such web, at a higher rate of speed than such delivery.

In the accompanying drawing Figure 1 represents a transverse section of sufficient of a knitting machine to illustrate'the application of my yielding tension and take-up device thereto; Fig. 2 is a top view of said device, showing the frame members of the machine in horizontal section on the line a-a, Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a face View of a certain retainer plate sometimes used in convention as applied to a knitting machine of that type in which the needle cylinder 1 is t e stationary member and the camcylinder 2 is the movable member, but the invention may also be used in connection with a ma chine in which these conditions are reversed.

As shown in the drawing, the tension and take-up device comprises two circularly arranged series of heaters 3 and i disposed transversely to the wales of the web and traveling in the direction of said wales, one series of boaters rotating in one direction and the other series rotating in the opposite direction, and said beaters being so disposed that their paths of travel intersect, a convenient way of eifecting this arrangement of the heaters being to cause those of one set to project in one direction from a disk 5 carried by a shaft 5 and those of the other set to project in the opposite direction from a disk 6 carried by a shaft 6 and to cause these shafts to rotate in opposite di rections by providing them with intermeshing gear wheels 7, as shown in Fig. 2, either of the shafts acting as a driving shaft and being provided with a pulley 8 or other device to which power is applied.

v The web is inserted between the heaters 2 Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed February 18, 1918. Serial No. 79,079.

Patented June 6, 1916.

and 3 at the point where their paths of travel intersect, whereby the web is first struck on one side by a beater of one set and then on the opposite side by a beater of the other set, as shown in Fig. l, and so on, by the successive heaters of'each set.

The rate of travel of the boaters is in exce'ss of the forward movement "of the web, but the latter is held yieldingly between the boaters, which 'slide over the surface of the web in the direction: of movement of the latter, the web being carried forwardly by the frictional hold of the heaters thereupon tension which will cause it to move forwardly in accordance with its rate of production, and will insure the proper amount of tension at ali times upon the course of stitches which is engaged by the needles.

When the machine is one'of that type in which movement is imparted to the needle cylinder, the tension and take-up device will have likemovement imparted to it and the driving mechanism for the beaters Will "be modified accordingly, as will be readily understood.

Although I prefer, in all cases, to use two sets of heaters disposed on opposite sides of the web, and having intersecting paths of travel, my invention might, in its broader aspect, be embodied in a device having a set of heaters on but one side of the web, the opposite side having any form of support which would not interfere with the travel of the boaters over the face of the web in the direction of the wales thereof, and although I have shown my invention as aP-- plied to a yielding tension and take-up device for knitting machines, it is not limited thereto, but is adapted as well for other uses, as, for instance, in the treatment of knitted webs according to the invention constituting the subject of a separate application Ser. No. 79,080 filed by me of even date herewith.

It may be advisable to subject the web, at a point either above or below the tension and take-u mechanism, or at both points, to such restraint as will prevent movement of the web except in a forward direction. The means which I prefer for this purpose are plates 9 disposed on opposite s des of the web, and having forwardly bent inner edges toothed as shown in Fig. 3, such plates permitting free forward movement of the web speed than the forward movement of the web.

2. In a yielding take-up and tension device for knitted webs, the combination of two sets ofheaters one on one side of the web and the other on the opposite side of the same, theheaters of one set alternating with those of the other set, and both sets of heaters being disposed transversely to' the Wales of the web, and means for movin said heaters forwardly in the direction 0 said wales and at a higher rate of speed than the forward movement of the web.

3. In a yielding take-up and tension device for knitted webs, the combination of two sets of heaters one on one side of the web and the other on the opposite side of copies of this patent my be obtained tor ment of said web.

' 4. The combination, in a yielding take-up and tension device for knitted webs, of a series of heaters disposed transversely to the wales of the web, means for imparting forward movement to said heaters in the direction of said wales and at a higher rate of speed than the forward movement of the Web, and means independent of said heaters for preventing backward movement of the web.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOSEPH D. MORLEY.

Witnesses:

MARIE C. CURRY, W'. H. THORNTON.

five cents each, by addressing the "Commissioner of Batentz, Washington, D. l 

